Sun Valley, Idaho (Day Two)

For our second ride in Sun Valley we decided take the chair to the top of Bald Mountain. We parked at the River Run Plaza, bought our tickets and headed up. It was a cloudy and windy day and the ride up the chair was definitely chilly. By the time we reached the top of the first chair, we definitely needed our fleece hoodies. Another chair took us up another 1400′ to the start of the trail. Before starting down the trail we decided to ride up to a lookout area and admire the mountain view. Total elevation – 9100′.

We had our choice of two trails, both took approximately 2 hours to do. One took us to Cold Springs and the other to Warm Springs. Warm Springs was the more popular of the two so we decided to start with that one. The trail started off on a gentle slope through an alpine meadow before it started to trend downwards and became a fast, flowy ribbon of singletrack! The only hazards on the trail were the odd section of shale that had crumbled off the high side of the trail. It continued like this for miles before the trail entered a section of forest that had burned in a forest fire a few years earlier. It was a stunning panorama of purple flowers against the charred remains of the trees that were still left standing.

Unfortunately it was just as we started to head into this section of trail that I remembered a very important lesson. When adjusting a piece of your kit, never use your right hand! Especially when you need to touch the brakes and only have the left hand on the front brake… Whoops! Although it was probably one of my better endos.

Oops! from Teresa on Vimeo.

From there the trail started upwards for a bit and we headed up the other side of the valley across from the burned out section of forest. We were right in the sun and about halfway so this is where we decided to soak up some rays while having some lunch.

We continued climbing for a few hundred feet (at least that’s what it feels like when you’re 8000′ above sea level) before we came back into the trees and into a series of switchbacks. This was by far the best part of the trail. There wasn’t as much shale to watch out for in this section, although we did have to keep an eye for riders going uphill.

Not long later we ended up at the Warm Springs Lodge and made our way back to the River Run Plaza via the bike route. Sun Valley has a fantastic paved bike route on an old railbed that takes you through town.

Warm Springs Trail, Sun Valley Resort

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We were hoping to go up and do the Cold Springs Trail next but Mother Nature had other ideas. A massive weather system was moving in and we were advised that the along with the thunderstorm there were heavy rainfall and flash flood warnings. The chairlifts were closed for the rest of the day.

They weren’t joking when they said heavy rains were coming. We had read that Sun Valley gets 0.8″ of rain on average in August and we’re pretty sure we got that in 10 minutes. Luckily we got back to our campsite in time to dig trenches to divert the water away from our tent and avoid any major damage. The rain never did stop that night so the next morning we packed up and continued on towards Grand Teton National Park before heading to Montana.

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